Something Personal
by I hart Booth
Summary: A cold case Booth was never able to solve literally runs back into his life...can Brennen help him solve it and come to terms with a painful reminder of his past? friendship leading to BB [rated T for safety]
1. What is it?

I've posted a bunch of fics at the Bones Boards, but some have been asking if I'll post it here so, here it is. Hope you enjoy.

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The girl ran, full speed down the dark alleyway. She dodged garbage cans and puddles, trying to be as soundless as possible. She kept looking back over her shoulder, convinced she was being chased. It was everywhere, his blood. All over her hands, face and clothes. She ran faster, as if the running would clear the blood off her clothes and the tears from her eyes.

It was because of these frequent glances over her shoulder that she ran into the FBI agent. He was exiting the back door of a restaurant, feeling light as air, his case was solved. The gruesome murder case he and his partner had been working on for the past two weeks was solved and he was looking foreword to a couple of well deserved beers back at her place.

He was turning around to say something to her when the terrified girl ran right into him, knocking him off balance and into a wall. The girl tripped, but got back up to start running again, not even glancing back.

The FBI agent's eager and now slightly pissed partner, Temperance Brennen overtook the girl easily and pinned her to the wall, having already recognized the substance on her shirt as blood.

"Bones!" FBI agent Seeley Booth tried to wrench Brennen's hands off the girl but she protested.

"Booth, she's covered in blood."

"Yea, I can see that Bones, but we can't get answers from her if you suffocate her into a coma."

Brennen let go of the girl who gasped for air and in the process dropped something she'd been holding in hr hands.

Booth took her by the shoulders and tried to talk to her, but she was hysterical and couldn't seem to hear her.

"No!! Please no! He's coming after me please, please let me go, I'm sorry I ran into you! I'm sorry I'm sorry…" The girl broke down in sobs and collapsed, would've hit the ground if Booth hadn't caught her.

He tried to calm her, while also clinging to his trained indifference that was rapidly escaping him. The girl was no more than fifteen, and she was absolutely terrified, of what he didn't know.

He became aware of Brennen poking him in the arm.

"It's okay, shhh…stop crying. What is it Bones?" He twisted around to look at her, irritated. She was thrusting something that was an odd brownish white color toward his face.

"She dropped this."

"What is it?"

Brennen squinted at the object once more before answering.

"It's a bone."

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	2. Let it not be

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"A bone from where?" Booth, watched as Brennen studied the bone closer. He turned his attention back the hysterical girl in front of him. "Listen, I need you to calm down and tell me why you are covered in blood."

The girl's sobs continued as if he hadn't spoken. Booth stood straight, for he had been bending over to look the girl in her eyes. He sighed and glanced at Brennen, he could tell she was taking mental note every possible aspect of the bone. She was already wearing gloves and she had that intense look in her eye, the one she always got when she was working. He returned his attention to the girl.

"Lets try this. What's your name?"

With great effort she replied, "Kayla."

"Okay Kayla," Booth smiled reassuringly, "who is after you?"

Before she could respond Brennen took a step foreword. "Where did you find this bone?" She'd placed it in a plastic bag she had in her pocket. Kayla broke down in sobs again.

"Great Bones, I was just starting to get her calm. What was it we disscussed about me doing the questions and you not talking?"

"But you asked me where the bone is from, I don't know but she probably does. Besides this bone is worn and dry, whatever body it came from would not have blood still on it. But she's covered in blood."

"Which means there's another body." Booth understood why Brennen was so adement all of a sudden.

Kayla did have a gash in the side of her head, but that did not seem to be the source of all the blood all over her clothes.

"Where did you find this bone?" Brennen repeated, sternly this time.

The girl took a deep breath and pointed into the darkness of the alley, back the way she had come.

Bones took off running.

"Bones! Bones hey stop!" Booth grasped the girl's sleeve and ran after Bones, a little surprised the girl didn't protest.

Brennen had stopped behind a dumpster.

"Bones I really…" He looked at where she was staring. There, the body of a teenage boy lay dirty, deserted, and bloody.

Kayla, who had suddenly gone quiet, leaned over and puked. Booth, standing hardly a foot from her didn't seem to notice. He flipped open his cell.

"Agent Booth here, I'm gonna need a Crime Scene Unit at 2144 South Street in the back of the alley… yea, and" he looked at the girl, "do you have parents or someone we can call?"

She shook her head. Booth wasn't surprised, he suspected from her appearance that she was a street kid.

Brennen saw her shake her head and felt her heart sink, she was only a child.

"I'm also going to need Social services down here too." He hung up and looked at Bones.

Brennen had gone pale. Booth knew why, she hated corpses. They still had their skin.

"This is where I found it." Kayla whispered. Booth looked at her, her eyes transfixed on the body.

He took a step foreward, letting go of the girl knowing she wouldn't run, and he looked at the body.

"Bones, you think you can tell me how he died?"

Brennen sighed. "Cam would be better able to tell, but it looks like multiple stab wounds to the upper torso."

Booth's stomach flip-flopped, god he hoped he was wrong. He'd seen the knife wounds, he just wanted to be sure. He turned back to Kayla, whose arms were folded across her chest, staring at the ground.

"Where did you find the bone?" He said slowly.

Please God let me be wrong. Don't let it be…

"It was in his hands. I tried to wake him up," Kayla tried to keep her composure, " when I shook him, it fell on the ground."

Brennen watched her friend's features darken.

"Booth? What is it?" She walked toward him, carefully avoiding disturbing the scene. "Do you know something?"

Booth met her eyes for a moment when they heard cars pull up behind them. Half a dozen men got out and started to process the scene, ushering Booth, Brennen and Kayla out.

A woman in a faded pants suit walked up to them.

"Hi, I'm Detective Patricia Waters, I'm here for the witness."

"I'm Special Agent Booth, this is my partner Dr. Brennen and I requested a representative from social services."

"I know Agent Booth but we couldn't find one on such short notice. I am to take the girl to the precinct and get a statement and any evidence she might have."

Kayla hadn't moved or said a word. Her features entirely glazed over.

"Well she had this on her," Bones held out her bone in it's plastic baggy, "But I'd like to take it with me back to the Jeffersonian."

"What is it?"

"It's a scapula."

"Interesting, is that supposed to mean something?" The Detective gave her a sarcastic look and folded her arms.

Bones pursed her lips. "It's a posterior part of the shoulder girdle. A shoulder blade. It's not from your victim. I'd like to take it to my lab and see if I can find out more about it."

"You found it here? Then its part of the evidence, I can't allow you to take it."

"Actually you can't but I can." Booth snapped, on edge at the Detective's cocky attitude. "Both the victim and the witness are under eighteen and I have reason to believe this is the work of the East Coast Chopper, which makes this my case, my jurisdiction and my call."

Detective Waters closed her mouth, not knowing quite what to say. "Fine. I still need to take the girl downtown for questioning."

"After you have a social worker present, correct?" Brennen said it more as a warning than a question.

"Of course Doctor." The detective bit back as much sarcasm as she could and looked at Booth.

He nodded and watched as she led Kayla down the alley toward her car. Suddenly Kayla turned back and looked Booth in the eye. He was forced to break the gaze first and looked at the ground, her big dark eyes still burning his skin.

"Booth?" Brennen stood next to him now, touching his arm. "Are you okay?

Booth looked at her for a second, wanting to tell her, but not sure how. "Let's go Bones."

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	3. The EC Chopper

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In the car and on their way to the lab, Booth filled Bones in on the East Coast Chopper.

"He's suspected of five murders and one attempted murder in the past two years. Two in Maryland, two in Virginia and one here in DC. The murders were never more than a month apart. He stalked his victims closely, and always leaves a bone in their hands."

"Doesn't sound like what we found at the crime scene was enough to pin it on this Chopper guy."

"Did they look alike to you?"

"What?" She looked at Booth, but he stared straight ahead at the road. Both hands gripping the wheel tightly. "You mean the victim and the girl?"

"Yea."

"Well, I don't know about looks. They had similar facial structure. Same approximate height and weight. Same color hair. Why?"

"The EC Chopper always attacks sets of fraternal twins. Boy and girl. He stalks them and waits until they are alone in their house. Knocks out the boy, stabs the girl to death, cuts her hair off and leaves a mysterious bone in her hands. We think the body where the bones are from was probably chopped up. Hence 'East Coast Chopper'." Booth spoke low, not making any motion to look at Bones.

"Did you work those cases?" She asked carefully, hoping she didn't end up saying something she'd regret.

Booth nodded, it wasn't a good time for him, seeing so many kids dead in such a short time span. Booth knew if/when the EC Chopper was caught he probably wouldn't be able to trust himself to question the man, he just might kill him. See how _he_ likes it.

Booth didn't notice Brennen's concerned glances as he took the corners a little sharper than necassary. He kept thinking of the way Kayla had looked at him before she got into the Detective's car, it was like she didn't want to leave his side. Like she was all-alone in the world and terrified. What was it about her that haunted him so?

"Well, if it is the EC Chopper, he's changed his MO. Those two were street kids, no home to attack them in. Plus he attacked the boy, not the girl. Maybe it's a copycat." Brennen stated.

Booth shook his head.

"It's him. I know it's him. His last attack didn't go the way the others had. The boy woke up before the Chopper was through, he tried to fight him, ended up getting beat unconscious. The Chopper took off leaving the boy to die beside his sister. A neighbor heard the screaming, made a call...poor kid was in the ICU for three days. When he finally woke up I questioned him for a few minutes and when I left...he went into a coma."

They were only ten years old, only babies. Booth thought, remembering how fragile the boy had looked when he spoke with him, making so much effort to tell everything he could, one last gift to his sister.

"You think because that attack went wrong he changed his MO?"

"Yep. I think it's been almost two years since the last attack and those kids were victims of opportunity. As far as why Kayla is alive and her brother dead, I have no idea."

"No leads on the past cases?"

Booth shook his head.

"Well then I want the bones from the other attacks. Zach and I might be able to find out who the bones belong to. If there's anything substantial of the skull Angela might be able to give us a face to run through missing persons."

Booth just nodded. For a few minutes they rode in silence.

Brennen noted the change in Booth's demeanor and assumed it was because he hated cases that involved kids. She knew he felt personally responsible for them all.

"Hey Booth, you know you should just give me a gun." Brennen hoped the 'gun subject', as she called it would make Booth tease her and loosen up a bit.

"What?"

"You're always worried something will happen to me when I go somewhere without you, if you gave me a gun…"

"I'm not giving you a gun Bones. And if you wouldn't take off running down dark alleys or sewer tunnels you wouldn't need one." Booth's mood wasn't lightning as Brennen had hoped.

"I'm just saying if you gave me a gun you wouldn't have to worry about me." Brennen was slightly annoyed. She didn't know what was wrong with him and knew she wouldn't find out until he was ready to tell her.

But her comments helped in a way she hadn't expected. It got Booth's mind off the case and onto her.

Booth winced internally, remembering Brennen running down the alley into the darkness, him incapable of stopping her. "Bones, even if I gave you a gun, which I'm not, but even if I did, it wouldn't stop me from worrying about you." Booth glanced at her quickly out of the corner of his eye, she was smiling to herself. She would probably never admit it, but she knew what he said was true, and she was glad.

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	4. play things for the squints

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Brennen swiped her key card and entered the plat formed area of her lab.

"Oh my Gosh, Brennen what happened?" Angela had put down her sketchbook and was running toward her friend, who still had blood on her blouse and arms from the girl.

"Relax, Ange, it's not mine." Angela visibly relaxed and asked where it came from. "Booth and I were leaving Garrison's Place when this girl covered in blood ran into him, I ran after her and pinned her down and got blood all over me because of it. Zack will you come here please?"

"Well are you Booth's hero now because if he owes you then…" Angela said smiling.

Brennen interrupted. "Heroine and he doesn't owe me anything. Where _is_ Booth?" Brennen turned, she thought Booth was right behind her. There he was, standing out in the doorway on his cell phone.

"Yes Dr. Brennen?" Zack, Brennen's eager-to-please assistant, waited expectantly for Brennen's directions.

"Zack, take this bone, clean it and get any information you can out of it. The FBI is having more sent over so we will know better what we're dealing with."

"What are we dealing with Dr. Brennen?" Zack asked, taking the bone carefully into his hands, already examining it.

"The East Coast Chopper." Brennen responded.

"The East Coast Chopper?" Hodgins came up from behind Angela, gently poking her in the side as he walked by, she squealed and gave him a playful glare. "I remember him. Attacks kids, twins right? Knocks out the boy kills the girl and disappears without a trace."

"Kids?" Angela looked horrified. "that's a child's bone?"

"No," Brennen said, "This scapula is fully formed, an adult."

There was a grunt behind them as Booth figured out how to balance the box he was holding on one arm and get his card out of his pocket and swipe it with the other.

"Here you go guys. Some play things for my favorite squints." He set the box down on the table, it had just been delivered from the FBI cold case archives. Booth was in better spirits now, he'd just gotten off the phone with Parker. Although he wasn't going to be able to see his son this weekend, he was glad to have talked to him.

The group descended on the box, removing old photos, notes, papers, files, baggies of things that brightened Hodgin's face, whatever they were, and of course, bones.

"Glad to see you're in a better mood." Commented Brennen who was pretending to be enthralled with the original police report on the East Coast Chopper.

"What are you talking about?"

"You hardly said two words in the car."

"Well maybe I just didn't feel like talking."

"That's unlikely. Judging by the level of strain in your voice when you spoke and how tightly you gripped the steering wheel it's more likely you were simply unable to process all the new information regarding this case."

Angela, Zack and Hodgins looked from Booth to Brennen as if watching a tennis match.

"I really hate it when you analyze me Bones." Booth said, starting to get irritated again.

"Then give me a gun." Brennen suddenly looked up from the paperwork, where she had been looking this whole time, and caught Booths eyes. They both broke out in laughter after trying to stare each other down for a few seconds. Zack, Hodgins and Angela laughed too, understanding that Brennen was making fun of herself and teasing Booth.

_Good for you Bren_ Angela thought.

"What's so funny?" Cam walked up to the group taking a spot in the circle next to Booth.

"Nothing Cam." Brennen said quickly, seeing that Booth was about to respond.

"Okay, then what's with the pow-wow?"

"We just got a new case. The East Coast Chopper." Zack said.

Cam nodded, knowing immediately who it was he was talking about.

"Well guys, we've got to go question a witness so…"

"I thought the Detective was going to do that." Brennen said.

"I changed my mind. I asked her not to do anything until we got there. So lets go Bones, chop-chop."

Brennen quickly divvied up the workload between her team and joined Booth on the floor. He placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her out the door. Cam noticed, and ignored it. Booth and Bones were meant to be, it was obvious. But until they figured that out, Booth was still her booty-call. She smiled to herself.

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	5. You okay?

_**Thanks for all the great reviews! You guys are awesome.**_

Booth slapped Brennen's hand. "Bones, don't touch my radio."

"But I'm tired of this music it's annoying and unstructured."

"It's called Van Halen, Bones. Classic."

"It's called noise." Brennen was slightly irritated, she did not like Booth to give her orders like that. She reached out to change the station again. Booth reached out to stop her and in the struggle the station changed, and the speakers began to play 'Hot Blooded' by Foreigner.

Booth scrambled to change the station, turn off the radio, anything to end that song. He finally hit the right button and set back in his seat, relieved.

Brennen felt a little guilty, she noticed how a look of something like panic had washed over Booth's face when the song started playing, but she couldn't stop the swell made in her stomach by hearing her favorite song. The song she and Russ used to sing in the car on the way to school. The song she and Booth had sung, playing air guitar and goofing off in her apartment. The song that had been playing in her head as the paramedics loaded Booth into the back of an ambulance, with the possibility that he would never make it to the hospital alive lingering in the air.

A song she no longer liked very much.

Booth relished in the silence Foreigner had left in his SUV. He didn't want to think of what that song meant to him. How easy it would have been for Bones to have been the one who got blown across the room from an exploding refrigerator. And he couldn't push the memory of her staring, terrified, down the barrel of a gun that he might as well have been aiming at her in that warehouse. God, if something had happened to Bones, he would never be able to forgive himself.

Bones looked over at Booth, staring dutifully down the road.

"You okay?" She asked, not sure if she was referring to the pained expression on his face or the fact that she now knew his muscular body had taken so many physical beatings over the years.

Booth looked at her for a moment, "Yeah Bones, I'm fine."

_**Someone mentioned they wished the chapters were longer, I hadn't realized they were so short, so from now on i'll post two at a time.**_


	6. Kayla's story

_**This is the longest one yet! glugg glugg whoo hoo!**_

Kayla stared out the tiny window of 'Interview Room 4', trying to remember to breathe. Trying to push the feelings of terror and loneliness out of her chest. They still hadn't found a Social Worker for her, and she was a-okay with that. She and her twin brother Tommy had been in the system before, she wasn't in a hurry to go back.

The Detective had tried to question her when they got to the station, she'd gone deadpan, refusing to answer. She remembered what the pretty doctor had said back in the alley, about needing a social worker present, and she wasn't going to do anything otherwise. That doctor and FBI guy had been the first people outside of her brother she ever felt like trusting. She felt like they were going to try and keep her from any more harm.

Kayla turned around when she heard the door start to open, half expecting Tommy to come through, with his long hair and big goofy smile and tell he it was time to go. Tell her that everything was going to be okay. When it wasn't him, it finally hit her. Tommy was never coming back.

She felt like throwing up.

_They have her dressed like a criminal_ Brennen thought when she and Booth entered the interrogation room. She knew the police had to take the girls' clothes as evidence, but did they have to dress her in an orange jumpsuit like she was some kind of convict?

"Hi Kayla." Booth thought the girl looked hollow, probably still in shock. "You remember us?"

Kayla nodded. "Agent Booth, Doctor Brennen." She saw that the agent was pleased, "I always was good with names."

Brennen watched Booth sit at the cold steel table as he watched Kayla. His mood had gone somber again when they entered the building and she was beginning to think it was due to more than just Booth's discomfort with cases centered around children. Even if it wasn't, she knew this East Coast Chopper targeted kids, and if they caught him, Booth would need to be kept at a safe distance. There was no telling what he might do if he met the killer face to face.

"Kayla," Booth began carefully, "I'm going to have to ask you some questions okay? They're gonna help us find out who did this to your brother."

The girl nodded shortly and took a seat opposite the agent and the doctor, who was now sitting down.

"I know the drill."

"First, I was wondering what you were doing in the alley tonight." Booth knew what her answer most likely would be, but there were things he didn't know. And the more he knew, the easier it would be to catch the man he was beginning to regard as his archenemy.

"We were going to sleep there." Kayla said matter-of-factly. She looked up and didn't see the usual judgmental sympathy in these two adults faces. It made her want to tell them anything she hadn't pushed out of her memory completely. "Tommy and I been living on our own for about three years I think. Mom died when we were little. Dad's dead if I'm lucky."

"Where is your father?" Brennen asked. Booth bit back a 'be quiet Bones'. He wanted to trust her, but with kids like Kayla, the more you prompted them, the more likely they were to shut you out.

Kayla flashed severe eyes at the Doctor. "Don't really matter to me, as long as he stays there." Then before she could be interrupted again, she continued. "My dad's a drug addict. He used to beat me and Tommy all the time. Once, he smacked us around so good, we couldn't leave the house for almost two weeks."

Booth leaned foreword, straining to understand Kayla, who talked quietly and to the floor.

"He had these friends. They would come over at night, Dad used to let 'em… my father used to let 'em come into his daughter's room so they could…so…" Kayla shook her head and closed her eyes. "He got a coupla' grams of rock for free for it."

"What rock?" Brennen whispered to Booth.

"It's slang for cocaine Bones." Booth answered in monotone, fury growing in his stomach for what this girl had been through. Kayla didn't seem to notice the exchange.

"Tommy started making me sleep in his bedroom closet under dirty clothes when he found out. He joined me after our father started beating him for every night his friends missed with me. We woke up one day and went out, my dad wasn't in the house and he'd forgotten to lock us in. We saw our chance. We packed what we could, ate what we couldn't and got the hell out of there." Kayla stopped fidgeting and laid her head down on the table, facing the wall. "He's been all I've got for so long. I don't know what to do now. He's the only one that ever gave a crap about me." She whispered.

Booth cleared his throat and took a deep breath, glancing at Bones. He couldn't find his voice.

Brennen read his mind. "Do you remember anything unusual from earlier today, or even in the past few weeks?"

"Like what? I mean, I see weird stuff everyday." She bit back a comment about the one-legged prostitute that worked the corner of V street and Hamilton.

"Well, what about seeing anyone around, who you hadn't ever seen before? Do you remember feeling like you were being followed, or watched?" Booth had regained his composure.

Kayla thought hard. People were always watching her and her brother, they had to, or else Tommy would rob 'em blind.

"No more than usual." She said finally.

"Are you sure?" Bones started, "The person we suspect usually stalks his victims for a while before the actual…"

_Be sensitive Bones, don't say it…_

"The actual act." Brennen finished.

Booth sighed in relief.

"Did you see your brother talking to anyone you didn't recognize?" Booth was hoping so hard for a break in this case he thought he might burst. He wanted to nail the sorry SOB who was killing these kids. He wanted to kill him.

"No…uh, wait. I do remember something." Kayla suddenly looked up, hoping what she was about to say would help this agent somehow. "When Tommy and I left the pawn shop he did seem a little…different." Kayla focused on tapping her fingers on the hard metal table, not wanting to fully remember earlier in the day when Tommy was still so very much alive.

"Different how?" Booth asked carefully.

"He was…nervous I guess. He kept looking over his shoulder. But when I tried to look he told me to stay looking foreward. All day he kinda seemed edgy I guess. He just kept telling me not to look where he was looking. It was weird, but I didn't question it. When Tommy tells me to do something, I do it. It's never been the wrong thing to do before." Kayla shrugged.

Booth winced at how the girl was still referring to her brother in present tense. His death had not yet registered with her completely.

"What about right before the attack. Do you remember anything?"

"No, not really. I was talking to him about what to get to eat and he kind of narrowed his eyes and looked passed me. I turned to look where he was looking and…that's it. I woke up with a wicked headache and blood all down my face, Tommy lying a few feet away. Blood was everywhere." Her voice shook, "I crawled over to him, held him, shook him, called his name, but it was too late, and I knew it. I thought I heard footsteps behind me and took off running, then I ran into you. I don't even remember picking up the bone." Kayla spoke through the ringing in her ears and held back tears. So tired of tears.

"Does that help?"

"No." Brennen said before she could stop herself.

"Bones!"

"Well, it doesn't. We don't know who the guy is what he looks like where he's from or…"

"We know he stalked them, though not for as long as the others. He targeted them and he is probably still around since the attack was only a few hours ago. We know that your brother," Booth turned toward the haggard looking young girl, "had good instincts and tried his best to keep you out of harms way." _And we know he made a mistake_, Booth thought, _because I'm sitting here talking to the girl, not the boy_.

Kayla looked from Booth to Brennen and back again. "So, it does help."

"It helps."

Brennen was still not convinced, but she didn't say anything.

"Can I ask you guys a question now?"

"Go for it." Booth sat back, slightly amused at being on the other side of the table for once.

"Why'd they cut his hair?" Kayla seemed truly troubled by this question.

"What do you mean?"

"When I woke up, all Tommy's hair was cut off. Our dad made me keep my hair long because his friends liked it and he made Tommy wear a buzzcut. When we left I started cutting mine and Tommy grew his out. But when I woke up, Tommy's hair was cut short again."

Booth and Brennen looked at each other. Then at Kayla, whose shortish blonde hair stuck out in chaotic tufts all over her head.

The EC Chopper really had made a mistake. He'd mistaken Tommy for the sister because of his long hair and his sister's short hair.

"Now _that_ helps." Brennen stated. The girl rewarded this with a small smile, which Brennen returned quickly. Booth's heart felt warm in his chest. He loved when Bones did human things like that, thinking he didn't notice.

Booth motioned for he and Brennen to leave, feeling they had put the girl through enough and she should get some rest.

"Wait." Kayla said suddenly before the door had closed behind them. Booth poked his head back in, Kayla had risen and was standing in front of him.

"Will you tell them…tell them his name is Tommy?" She said through tears. "Tommy Bennett. I know they're gonna dispose… of his body, but there should be some name instead of John Doe. He had a name."

Booth nodded, watching the tears fall from her brown eyes, feeling his heart break.

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	7. Metaphorically speaking

**_Glad there are people out there enjoying it, and feel free to point out anything you think is mistaken although..._**

**_Disclaimer: I hate research, so anything I present as fact, it's easier on everyone if you just accept it at that and don't worry about the details. :)_**

In the car Brennen's cell phone rang loudly, cutting off the pairs' conversation.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Brennen, its Hodgins. I got the test results back from…"

"Hold on Hodgins, Booth's here, I'm gonna put you on speakerphone."

"Uh, okay. Anyway the particulates collected off the victims' clothing, I've identified them." Hodgin's voice was slightly staticy from the increased volume so both sets of ears could hear easily. "Sodium hypo chlorite, ammonium hydroxide solution, anionic surfactant and pine fragrances."

"Bleach, ammonium and Pine?" Brennen translated to plane English for Booth's sake, who found it annoying, but appreciated her efforts anyway. He just wished sometimes he could understand what his squints were saying the first time they said it.

"Yea, cleaning products," Hodgins continued.

"The kind you get at any grocery store? That's not a whole lot of help Hodgins." Booth's momentary elation died down.

"No, not really Agent Booth. These chemicals were distilled differently than the kind you pick up at any old supermarket. They're stronger, used more for commercial use in large office buildings, malls, museums…"

"Schools?" Booth asked eagerly. Bones looked at him, she could tell by the intensity on his face that he'd just gotten the break he'd been hoping for.

"Schools. Exactly."

"Thanks Hodgins." Booth whipped out his cell phone and dialed a number, navigating expertly with the other hand on the steering wheel. "Agent Booth here. I need a list of people who were employed before and shortly after at the schools of our EC Chopper victims. Focus on the janitorial staff." Booth snapped his phone shut. "If we get the kind of list I think we're gonna get, we'll be looking at a short list of shoe in Choppers."

"I don't know what that means. What have shoes got to do with it?"

Booth smiled, "You're unbelievable Bones. A 'shoe in' is a sure thing. I think we're finally going to catch this guy." Booth was getting his hopes up, he knew it was a bad idea, but he let himself anyway.

"You must hate being around Cam, huh Bones?"

"What? Why do you say that?" Brennen's face started to get hot and she turned away quickly. _What does he know?_

"Cam uses more metaphors than anyone I've ever known. 'Tighter than a nun's knees' and 'diuretic seagull'. I'd love to see your face when she says that kind of stuff. She must drive you nuts." Booth laughed softly and shook his head, thinking of the scene.

"If you only knew." Brennen muttered to the window, smiling anyway because he was right. Cam drove her up the wall.

**_U like?_**


	8. Solving murders takes chemistry

**_And here is the next chapter of my two chapter promise..._**

Booth and Brennen arrived back at the lab for an update on the rest of the case.

Zack was the first to speak. "I identified the marks we found on the bones from the murders. They were made by a small handsaw like this one." He held up an angry looking handsaw with two rows of teeth and slightly curved upward. "So technically your Chopper isn't a chopper, but a saw man."

Booth just raised his eyebrows and looked at Cam who was walking up to the group.

"So I hear you think you've got a suspect, huh Seeley?"

"No, but we found a pretty good place to look for one. Angela made any progress yet on a face?"

"We only have about half of it, but I was able to reconstruct what the whole skull probably looked like." She handed Booth her sketchbook and he looked at a picture of a skull.

"Looks like a pretty generic skull to me." Booth handed the pad back to her.

"Yeah, I know, but when we get more I'll be able to put more of a face on it."

Booth was glad she'd said, 'when we get more' instead of 'if we get more'. He loved that his squints were so optimistic. Sometimes hanging out with them, where everything was so black or white, true of false. Sometimes that was all that got him through the day.

"Seeley, can I talk to you for a minute?" Booth looked at her and started slightly at having Cam look at him with those eyes in that way.

Hodgins and Angela exchanged knowing glances as they walked away, and in a rare moment of social awareness, Brennen noticed the exchange.

"What?" She put her hands on her hips and the two moved their eyes to the floor.

"Nothing sweetie." Angela said softly.

Brennen raised her eyebrows.

Hodgins quickly dismissed himself "I, um, I have to go…check on my Dung Beetles. They should be hatching any minute and I should be there, to be the first thing they see. You know, so they'll know I'm their momma."

Angela smiled as she watched him go.

Brennen moved to examine the skeleton Zack had cleaned and arranged in proper order. Zack watched her from the computer where he was taking a closer look at the bones at 1000x magnification. He waited impatiently for her words of approval.

"Good work Zack." Was all she said. He grinned goofily.

"Sweetie. I can't take it anymore." Angela held her sketchbook loosely at her side and stood close to her friend. "When are you going to stop denying your attraction to Booth?"

"What attraction?" Brennen didn't look up from the bones.

"What attraction? Bren that's like saying…where is the North Pole, it just doesn't make sense." Angela watched for any change in Brennen's demeanor that would indicate Brennen was not as oblivious as she seemed. There was none.

"Booth and I are just partners Ange."

"Yea, and Zack is just a little socially akward. C'mon sweetie, you and Agent Hot Stuff? There's so much chemistry there you gotta wear gloves and safety glasses."

Brennen laughed softly. "I don't know what you're talking about Angela."

"Fine sweetie, deny it all you want, but I'm just letting you know now, the only gift I'm giving you on your wedding day is a note that says 'I told you so'." Angela smiled, and walked away, ignoring Brennen's worn out speech on how 'marriage is an archaic institution'.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Camille I told you not to look at me like that in here."

"Like what? This is my face."

"Right," Booth smiled knowingly at her, "You can't hid those lyin' eyes."

"Sure Seeley, you don't have an ego problem."

Booth laughed softly.

"Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay." She folded her arms over her chest and looked up into his eyes. She realized that she couldn't see into them like windows the way she used to.

Booth put his hands on his hips, revealing the bronze eagle belt buckle he always wore. "I'm fine Camille."

"Yea, you say that. But I remember how you were during the Chopper investigation and I don't want to get the call at 2 am to come pick you up because the bartender took your keys away."

"Don't worry Cam, you won't. I'm fine. Thanks for your concern but really, it's ok." He gave her a weak smile and turned to leave before she could say anything else. He felt a little guilty. He was supposed to be having some kind of relationship with Cam, but he didn't fell compelled to talk to Cam the way he did with Bones. Even though he knew of the two, Cam was better apt to know what to say and when to say it, he knew he could trust Bones with anything. He knew that out of all the women he had ever known, Bones was the one he would go to the ends of the earth for, and he knew that she would do the same.

**_La dee da dee da...this was my favorite chap I think. And you?_**


	9. Someday Soon

**_So...we up for a little BB angst/fluff?? Heeeerrrreee we go..._**

It was past midnight when Dr.Brennen heard the soft knock at her door. She put down the file she had been reading on the couch and walked over to the door.

"Who is it?" She called. She never used to do that, but Booth had scolded her so many times for opening the door without asking who was there that she started doing it just to shut him up.

"Bones it's me."

"Booth?" She was slightly surprised to hear Booth's muffled voice come through the door. "Come in."

Booth, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and jacket felt a little akward standing in front of Tempe, who wore a light blue tank top and pajama pants.

"It's late." She commented.

"Yea, I know, but Angela said you were taking home some files to work on so I figured you would still be up."

Brennen nodded. "Want a beer?"

"Sure."

Brennen handed him a cold beer from the refrigerator and went back to her work on the couch. She was used to having Booth around so it didn't bother her that he was at her apartment in the middle of the night.

"Whatcha workin' on?" Booth plopped himself down on the couch the way a child does and grinned at her. But Brennen saw that it wasn't a real smile. There was something bothering him, she could read it in his eyes.

She looked back at the file. "It's the file on a body found in Honduras. It's possible that it was used in a Mayan human sacrifice ritual. The Jeffersonian wants it for the new exhibit." She knew that whatever Booth wanted to talk about, she wouldn't get it out of him until he was ready.

"Sounds very…interesting." Booth said, a touch of sarcasm in his voice. He looked around the room, his sniper training taking over causing him to take in every detail of it. Everything was the same as it was the last time he was there. Every book in it's place, every painting or tribal mask perfectly straight and not a speck of dust anywhere.

Brennen watched him observe. She was finding it harder to concentrate on her work with him there. Not so much because he was distracting, but because he was a distraction. She couldn't help but admire that look he had on his face. The one that said he was thinking hard and observing and trying to come to terms with military training and civilian life all over again.

"How do you know where to put the couch?" He said suddenly breaking the silence.

"What?"

"Without a TV. How do you know where to put the couch?" He looked at her, waiting to be amused by her anthropological examination of why humans are inclined to do something or other with their furniture to show some kind of dominance or something.

"I just face it to where the TV used to be."

Booth pouted as she had not filled his expectations and Brennen went back to her file. Booth's fingers started to twitch a little the way they did when he was bored and he lightly started tapping his fingers on his knees. The tapping led to bouncing his leg up and down, the bouncing led to bobbing his head and the bobbing head led to quiet humming. Before Brennen knew what was happening, Booth was having a full on dance party at the other end of the couch.

Brennen shut the file and threw it onto the coffee table.

Booth smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

Brennen studied Booth carefully for a few moments, fully aware of the fact that she really had no skills at reading people. But then, Booth wasn't people, Booth was Booth.

"Are you okay?" She asked, quietly sipping her beer.

Booth shut his eyes. "I am so _tired _of people asking me that!" He snapped, realizing too late that he would and couldn't stop himself. He watched Brennen visibally recoil back into herself and reach for the report off the table. He took a deep breath and looked at her.

"I'm sorry."

Brennen just nodded, avoiding his eyes.

"Really, I'm sorry. These cases are hard, you know? It's just..."

This time Brennen looked up, "They're all hard Booth."

He nodded.

"But this one is different. Especially now that Kayla has shown up."

Again, he just nodded, staring at his beer bottle.

"Do you know her or something?"

"No." Booth shook his head. "She just…reminds me of someone."

Brennen put the file back down, able to recognize by his tone that Booth was about to tell her something private. Something important to him.

He flicked his dark eyes toward her, making sure this was the right moment.

"I had a sister once, Bones."

Brennen tilted her head, she wasn't expecting that.

"Her name was Sarah. Cutest thing ever created, I swear." Booth smiled nostalgically at his hands, facing away from Brennen. "Brown hair, brown eyes, sweet little dimpled smile. Just perfect. She had the whole family in the palm of her hand because, well, mom and dad weren't supposed to be able to have any more kids after me, and then Sarah came along. She was like a walking miracle."

Brennen stifled a comment on the impossibility of miracles, allowing Booth to continue uninterrupted.

He sighed. "She was one of those cute kids who insisted on wearing pink but would immediately run outside and play in the dirt and chase bugs...God, Sarah." Booth shook his head slightly. "Anyway, uh, when Sarah was about three, we had a family barbeque, I was getting ready to leave for active duty so it was kind of like a 'going away party'. Everyone was there, which meant it was pretty hectic anyway, but then dad caught his apron on fire, Uncle Joe tried to put it out and only succeded in making it worse. Mom was running in and out of the house setting the table while I was calling our famiy who couldn't make it and saying 'goodbye'. On top of that, Jared and Lindsey were fighting, I mean it was like a mad house."

Booth glanced at Brennen, who was staring at him with those intense blue eyes, willing him to continue.

"No one even noticed that Sarah had wandered off. And mom and dad had never had a dog or anything so we didn't know about the hole in the fence. We were almost ready to eat when all of a sudden mom starts screaming 'where's Sarah?' Nobody even had time to start looking for her when...we heard the...the screeching tires and the car horn."

He held his breath for a second as the memory came flooding back to him. "I remember I was closest to the gate... I took off running..but I already knew what I would see when I rounded the corner of the house."

Booth held his lips tight for a moment, closing his eyes, forbidding the tears.

"I held her limp little body until the paramedics got there," He whispered, unable to muster his full voice, "but we knew it was too late. Sarah was gone."

Booth stared hard at his bottle of beer, his jaw muscles clenching and relaxing every few seconds.

Brennen hugged her knees, looking at Booth. She felt the pain in her chest was still strong from hearing Booth's voice crack with sorrowful tears.

"If she hadn't died." Booth said slowly, "She would be around Kayla's age."

Brennen nodded. "And when you met Kayla, it was like seeing what Sarah could've been."

Booth sort of shrugged his shoulders. "More like, what I never would have wanted her to be, what she never would have been in our family. Alone, terrified, unloved."

"Then, what you're saying is…you're not okay." Brennen rationalized, the only thing she really knew to do.

Booth understood and nodded, taking a long sip of beer. "But someday I hope to be, Temperence. Someday."

Brennen noticed that Booth's features remained slightly vulnerable and she didn't know what to say. She remembered, though, that a long time ago Booth had told her that when someone gives something of themselves you should do the same, she just wasn't quite sure what to give.

After a few seconds she put her beer on the coffee table, swallowed her fear and scooted down the couch so she was right next to him. He looked at her curiously, but she wouldn't meet his gaze. She then wrapped her small arms around his muscular one and laid her head on his shoulder.

"Someday you will be, Seeley. Someday soon."

They stayed like that until they lost track of time. Brennen fell asleep and not long after Booth's arm followed suit. But he refused to move it, feeling her warmth on his body, knowing how much of a struggle it was for her to be that open and honest just like he had been.

So he ignored the annoying tingling in his arm and was, eventually, able to join his arm and Bones in sleep.

_**One more to go tonight. If you liked it...hit the button!!**_


	10. Connect the Dots

**_Got lots of BB last chap so here's some stuff on the case._**

Booth awoke to the sound of his cell phone going off.

"Booth." He hadn't even opened his eyes, but he knew that it was Saturday and wherever he was wasn't his house. It smelled too flowery.

"Agent Booth? We've got a name for your Chopper."

Booth's eyes popped open, he realized immediately that he was in Bones' apartment, although she was nowhere to be seen.

"What is it?"

"Raymond Stark. He worked at all the schools of your victims and in the correct timeline. He also has a wrap sheet the size of my mother-in-law. A history of substance abuse, assault and battery, the whole nine yards. His last known residence is a house downtown. SWAT is on their way there now."

Booth acknowledged this and hung up the phone.

"Bones!" He got up from the couch, his arm a little stiff and he rubbed his shoulder. "Bones!" His heart rate began to quicken a little, it wasn't like her not to answer him when he called. She always at least had some snide remark about being too loud or something.

It was then that he noticed the note on the counter.

_Booth, coffee is made and in the pot. I had some work to do at the lab. Feel free to help yourself to some food, I have my cell. - "Bones"_

Booth smiled slightly at the careful way she wrote the letters. Bones never wanted to be misunderstood. He wondered if she left the note because it was the logical thing to do or because she knew he'd be worried to wake up and find her not there.

He preferred to believe the latter.

------------------------------------------------------

Brennen was bent low over the EC Chopper file at her desk, poring over every detail. She hadn't really had time to look at it yet, and now realizing how important it was to Booth, she wanted to be sure she knew all she could.

The bones she had sprawled out on her light-table were from a 22-year-old female. COD was a series of knife wounds that left their marks on the ribcage, sternum and part of the clavical. They got back the DNA results, which told them nothing they didn't already know.

And of course, they didn't have a face because half the parietal and occipital bones were still missing. They did have one thing though. They did have a name, Maureen Clara Stark. Getting it was a lucky break from the pin they found in the femoral neck part of the femur bone that was found at the site of the first murder. Maureen had broken her hip, Brennen knew, while skiing. They had run the name through missing persons, but there were no matches to her bones. Maureen was just a name, she still had no identity.

Brennen's cell phone began to play the Bob Marley song 'Bad Boys'. Brennen sighed, Angela had been messing with her phone again. She picked it up just as it began to repeat 'watcha gonna do?'

"Brennen."

"Bones you gonna be ready to go in ten minutes?"

"I can be, where are we going?"

"My guys at HQ got a name on our Chopper. Raymond Stark, he worked at all the victim's schools and lives in the DC area. Plus he has a wrap sheet that should make for a good read in our downtime." He said with a touch of sarcasm. "We're gonna go to his place, I have a feeling we'll find the rest of your bones there."

Brennen grabbed her bag. "Did you say Raymond Stark?" She walked out of her office.

"Yea, why?"

"I'll be outside Booth." She hung up and waved down one of the DNA specialist's intern in the hallway. "I need you to tell Norman to run Maureen Stark's DNA against the DNA of one Raymond Stark. He has a criminal record so it should be easy to find. Tell him Dr. Brennen needs it done asap and have him send the results to my cell."

The intern nodded and ran down the hall and Brennen went outside to wait for Booth.

_**Button Pushers UNITE!!**_


	11. Creepy Serial Killer Room

**_Bones was just on today guys...it was freaking AWESOME!! Now...here's the next two chaps._**

"You know Bones, it's very rude to hang up on your partner in the middle of a conversation." Booth said as Brennen climbed into his SUV.

"We weren't in the middle of a conversation and I had to grab Norman's intern before she got too far." Brennen got out her cell phone and put it on vibrate.

"Who's Norman?" Booth sped away from the curb in the direction of Raymond Stark's address.

"DNA specialist."

"Why? Whadaya got?" Booth flipped on his sirens and started to blow past the heavy afternoon traffic.

"We got DNA from some of the flesh left on my bones and it matched the name we found registered to the pin in the femeral head. One Maureen Stark, when you told me your suspect's name I…"

"You wanted to run their DNA see if there was any relation." Booth dodged a slow moving Buick and pulled back into his lane. "You're very smart Bones."

"I generally like to think so." She smiled and looked out the window, not at all bothered by Booth's jerky driving as long as the sirens were on.

------------------------------------------------------

The SUV pulled up in front of Raymond Stark's home, where SWAT was loading themselves back up to go to a different assignment.

One of the agent's flagged down Booth. "It's all clear for you guys, Stark's not home. It is his place though."

Brennen started to open her mouth.

"And no Dr. Brennen, my guys didn't touch anything. A few busted doors, that's all the disturbing we did to any of your evidence."

"Thank you." Brennen said and marched off toward the house, Booth in tow.

Booth gagged when he got inside. "You smell that Bones?"

She nodded and said solemnly, "Human remains."

While Brennen began to search the house for the source of the smell, Booth took in the rest of the surroundings. The house was eerily empty. Nothing on the walls, no real furniture. Just a crappy TV with bunny ear antenna, a torn up old recliner and a coffee table. Booth was on his way to the kitchen to find Bones when he heard an agent calling him from the basement.

"Hey Bones! C'mere a sec."

Brennen appeared with a frustrated look on her brow, which told him she still didn't know where the smell was coming from. They went downstairs and found the room Booth hated. The creepy-serial-killer-wall-of-death-room.

Pictures plastered all floor walls lit from a bare light bulb on the ceiling. Hundreds, thousands of pictures of boys and girls ranging from ages 6 to 20. All were twins of other pictures on the walls. Booth's stomach turned. Ten of the pictures had red circles around them. They were the pictures of Stark's actual victims. The rest, Booth guessed, got off lucky because Stark had decided not to go after them. He told the agent next to him to identify the kids and make sure they were okay anyway though. He noticed there were no pictures of Kayla and her brother that Booth could see, affirming his theory that the street kids had been a crime of opportunity.

The only piece of furniture was a trunk in the middle of the room with a saw and knife on top.

"That's pretty convenient." Booth said out loud.

"Well, the door was shut with about four locks. SWAT busted it." The agent who had called him responded.

"And I'd say that with the behavior Stark has presented thus far, he probably wasn't planning on being caught." Brennen made her way to the trunk in the middle of the room where the smell was strongest. She collected the saw and knife in evidence bags and handed them to a nearby CSI. She glanced at Booth who had a pained look on his face and she lifted the top of the trunk.

Booth groaned and turned around, the smell was overwhelming.

"They're bones with traces of human remains, most of which has collected at the bottom of this trunk. I'd guess this is the rest of Maureen Stark. I'm going to need the whole thing sent back to the Jeffersonian."

One of the Agents nodded and a couple of CSI's put on masks and continued to take pictures of the scene.

"C'mon Bones, our work here is done, lets get back to the lab."

She rose and allowed him to guide her upstairs and back to the SUV.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

They returned to the lab and the team had assembled around the trunk, Angela stood a ways off though, not wanting to get any closer to the smell than was necessary.

To Brennen's chagrin as she and Booth joined the others on the platform, Cam was there with the rest of the team waiting.

"Hello Seeley, Dr. Brennen, I see you've brought us a present."

"It's not a present it's human remains." Brennen said matter-of-factly, her hands on her hips. She ignored the steely glance she got from Cam for her comment.

Booth took a seat near Angela, as far from the trunk as they could be without falling off the platform.

Hodgins, Zach, Brennen and Cam began to extract the Bones from the body sludge. When Brennen had sifted through everything she told Hodgins to take the trunk and identify everything he could from what was left.

"Most of the bones are in tact," Zach began, "Except these pieces here which appear to be the missing pieces of our skull."

"Well, Hodgins has enough of a sample of this…"

"Body goop." Booth chimed in from across the room.

Brennen glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "That's not a scientifically correct term Booth."

"But it is an accurate one." He smiled despite the fact that the burger and fries he'd had earlier that day was now trying to make a comeback.

Brennen ignored him, but Cam proffered a slightly amused smile, which Booth acknowledged, though not with the same warmth he had been teasing Brennen with.

"Go ahead and clean the bones Zach and then get to work on reconstructing the skull. Work carefully, the bones are only a little over two years old but due to the damp condition of the basement they are in a more advanced stage of decay and very fragile. Get the assembled skull to Angela as soon as you can so she can give us a face."

"Yes Dr. Brennen." Zack immidiatly got to work and Cam wandered over to Booth, Angela had gone off to prepare the simulation on the Angelator.

"Hey."

Booth nodded in acknowledgment, but couldn't take his eyes off Bones who was studying the bones they already had from the past victims.

"I hear you stayed the night at Dr.Brennen's."

Booth whipped his head around to her. "Where'd you hear that?"

Cam just shrugged and looked upward. "I have ears everywhere Seeley."

Booth laughed a little, thinking of how Bones would be confused for a moment by that comment and say it was anatomically impossible.

"Whats so funny?"

"Nothing." He shook his head. "I literally slept there ok Camille? She slept, I slept, we were both fully clothed."

Cam stared at him, trying hard to make her decision.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

She sighed and shook her head at the floor. "Booty call is not enough Seeley."

"What?" Booth stood and turned his back to Brennen, looking at Cam. "Did you just say 'booty call'?"

"Yes. Yes I did."

Booth raised his eyebrows waiting for her to elaborate.

"I thought I could deal with just being…physical with you. I know you said we were in a relationship, but it never really got defined did it? I just thought we could be friends with benefits…"

"But Cam…"

She put a finger to his lips. "It's okay Seeley. As much as it pains me to say this as you're your ego is already the size of a small country, you are the kind of guy that a girl just can't help but get swept off her feet by. I can't just do friends with benefits. I'd rather be all or nothing at all and it is clear," She let her eyes slip towards Brennen for a moment causing Booth to stiffen his shoulders, "that your heart is somewhere else. It's time for me to step aside."

Booth started to say something, but Cam turned around and stopped him.

"It would be easier if you just let me go, let me do this with a little grace, huh Seeley?"

After she walked out of ear shot Booth crossed his arms over his chest and whispered, "Bye Camille."

He turned back to Brennen, who was now bent low over a microscope, she hadn't heard a thing. A smile crept across his lips. He had just been dumped, and yet, he felt like he could fly.


	12. Hold on! Please

Booth was walking over to Brennen, his pride wounded but in tact. She looked up and saw him, a slight smile on her lips.

"What?" Booth smiled back, wondering if he had missed a joke.

"It's a match." She stood erect and held up the saw they had collected from Raymond Stark's home "This is the saw that was used to dismember these remains."

Booth nodded, relief and frustration in his features. "We've got him," he said by way of explanation, "we just gotta go get him."

Then as if someone was reading his mind his phone rang, he excused himself and stepped few feet away from Brennen who set out trying to match the knife to the wounds on the bones.

"Booth…yeah….what!?…okay…yeah, we'll be there in fifteen minutes." He closed the phone. "Bones we gotta go, now."

"Just a second Booth, I just need to match these markings on the bone to this knife and…"

"Raymond Stark just turned himself in."

"What?" She straightened as Booth headed toward the stairs.

"And he's refusing to speak to anyone other than the lead agent in the investigation. So that's our cue, lets go. Zack can do that."

He had barely finished speaking and Brennen was stripping her lab coat and grabbing her bag. She brushed past Booth, her senses acutely aware of his cologne and she shook her head slightly at the momentary desire to stop and take in the smell.

"Zack!" She called as she descended the stairs of the platform, Booth not two steps behind,

"I have a match to the knife and our remains."

Booth lightly took her elbow and pulled her toward the exit doors. "C'mon Bones lets go."

"Just a second Booth. Zack, see if the knife we found is consistent with the Coroners report for the COD of the other victims and fax over your findings."

"Yes Dr. Brennen." The flustered assistant said, but she and Booth were already out the door.

-------------------------------------------------------

Brennen found the silence in the car unwelcome as her mind involuntarily kept making her inch toward Booth a little just to catch a whiff of his smell.

"Didn't uh…" She started, trying to remember what she was going to say, "were'nt you supposed to have Parker this weekend?" She thought back to the night before, Booth should have been with Parker, not at her apartment.

"Yea, but he got the chicken pox, Rebecca's going to let me have him next week." Booth took his sunglasses off as the sun had just passed behind a cloud.

"You've never had the chicken pox?"

Booth shook his head, "Nope, Jared got them when we were younger and my parents kept him isolated so I wouldn't get them."

"That was foolish." She muttered.

"What?" Booth glanced over at her, her face was not confrontational, more concerned.

"It's just that the varsilla-zoster virus is much easier to deal with in children. Adults are more likely to die from chickenpox and have serious complications from the varsilla infection. It would have been more logical to simply expose you to chicken pox when you're brother had them."

"Yea well, they were doing their best Bones. Just trying to protect their child. Love isn't always logical."

"Well that's obvious." She said to the window. Although neither she nor Booth were sure is she was referring to his parents or their partnership.

--------------------------------------------------------

At the FBI headquarters Brennen stopped Booth before he went into the room by placing a hand on his chest, which she quickly withdrew when she saw the surprised look on his face.

"Booth, maybe you should wait out here." She had been watching him throughout the ride and his anger was growing with every moment. She was afraid he wouldn't be able to keep himself under control in the same room with Stark.

"What are you talking about Bones?" He moved to get past her but she stepped in his way again.

"Just stay out here for a minute and calm down. You'll be able to see through the glass." She spoke low, but not low enough for Booth, who was now getting demeaning stares from the other officers.

He glanced up at them and then back at Brennen, the anger in his eyes surprised her. Just before he turned away she saw the slight red tinge in his cheeks and her stomach sank.

_Oh no, I've embarrassed him haven't I? Great job Temperance._

She shook it off and went through the doors and saw the EC Chopper for the first time.

------------------------------------------------

At first glance, Raymond Stark did not look like a serial killer. Especially not one that specifically targeted children. But although Brennen wasn't very adept at reading people, she could see that through those soft features of his face, his blue eyes held an inner darkness that allowed him to do such horrific things.

Brennen sat on the opposite side of the table from their suspect, as Booth watched through the one-way glass. His cheeks were still on fire, but he couldn't tell now if his sudden warmth was due to embarrassment because of Bones or rage because of the EC Chopper. He knew she was right to make him stay outside and calm down for a second, because at that moment all he wanted to do was put Starks head through the wall. And he would do it too if the asshole made even the slightest hint of a threat toward Bones. A threat including a wide range of things, Booth decided. Like say, a hiccup.

"Who're you?" Stark's voice was like gravel under tires. Brennen narrowed her eyes at him and put the file down in front of her.

"My name is Dr. Temperance Brennen."

"I was told the agent in charge was someone named Booth.'

"It is. I'm his partner." Brennen noticed Stark was well dressed in a bulky sweater and slacks. She found it ironic to think the man had dressed up to turn himself in for what would undoubtedly lead to a life sentence if not the death penalty.

"Why did you turn yourself in?"

Stark leaned back in his chair and shrugged. "You guys made it to my house, I figured it was time. I always said if you made it to my house I'd turn myself in."

From the other side of the glass Booth watched like a hawk as his partner questioned Stark. He really was trying to calm down, but Stark was making it difficult. He leaned back casually from the table as Brennen presented him with the evidence. He showed no remorse, it was as if he and Bones were discussing last night's football game. Booth knew they had enough evidence to send him to trial, but they didn't have a motive. Booth wanted a motive for all these murders. Especially the first, why had he killed the first girl Maureen Stark?

It was then that another agent came into the room and handed him a couple of papers.

"Thanks Scott." He mumbled, already looking things over. He recognized what they were, faxes from the Jeffersonian. The finished face from Angela and the DNA results from Zach along with a positive ID for the knife to the injuries on the other victims.

Booth burst into the interrogation room, startling both Brennen and Stark who had not known he was coming.

"You killed seven kids." He growled, he leaned far over the table in Starks face, standing next to Brennen, who made no motions to pull him back.

"You left seven families torn to shreds. Six innocent kids and" Booth threw Angela's picture down on the table in front of Stark. "Your own twin sister."

Brennen looked over at the picture and then strained to see the DNA results Booth had just brought in with him. The DNA was a match and the birth dates were identical. Raymond and Maureen Stark were brother and sister.

A look of panic passed quickly over Stark's eyes, but disappeared when he looked up and sneered at Booth.

"So you finally figured it out huh Agent Booth? Well you're right I killed seven people, but they weren't innocent. None of them were. Maureen knew how I felt about her. I'd told her, but the stupid girl wouldn't listen. She slapped me, called me a freak and went ahead and married James. That whore."

"You were in love with you're sister?" Brennen felt naseous. "And when she refused you're twisted advances you stabbed her to death and dismembered her body?"

The look on Stark's face was confirmation enough.

"What about the others? Melanie, Sasha, Grace, Debbie, Megan, Kayla. Those girls never did anything to you." Booth hissed.

"No. Not to me. But I saw the way their brothers looked at them and how they constantly brushed them aside. I gave them what they deserved, so their brother's could go on to live a better life without them." The same sick grin played all over Stark's hairy face. Booth's jaw muscles ached from how he'd been clenching his teeth but he had yet to relax them.

"You're a sick bastard." Booth's low, menacing voice responded. _He really thought all those boys were like him? I hate psycos. _

Finally Brennen couldn't hold back any longer. "But you screwed up."

"What?"

"You're last victim wasn't a girl, it was a boy. Tommy Bennett."

It was Booth's turn to sneer as he watched horror take over the man's face as Bones' words registered.

"You mistook Tommy for his sister and you killed him. Kayla is still very much alive."

Stark's lips curled in and he dropped his gaze to the table. "You're lying." Then suddenly, all civility was gone from his features and he looked at Brennen, beggining to rise from his seat and move towards her.

"You lying Bitch!!"

Within seconds Booth had grabbed Raymond, pulled him away from theh table and slammed him into the wall. Stark was prepared for this though, and as the agent pinned him, he pulled something shiny from his sweater sleeve. Brennen saw but it was too late.

Booth staggered away from Stark, his hands cradling the knife protruding from his stomach.

Brennen kicked her heel into Stark's chest, causing him to crumple against the wall gasping for air. Agents were already flooding the room, but Brennen paid no attention. She was kneeling at Booth's side, he'd fallen to the floor and was struggling against pain and the sudden urge to close his eyes for a while.

"Booth? Booth stay with me!" She took his hand with one of hers and applied pressure to his wound with the other. Trying desperately to stop the blood that gushed forth. On instinct Booth had already yanked the knife out, and both of them knew that was not the right thing to do.

Booth cursed himself as the waves of pain hit his body causing him to shudder.

Brennen glanced over at the knife next to his body, bloodstained all the way up to the handle. It was a very deep wound. Blood was already soaking his shirt as his face contorted in agony.

"Temperance…" He whispered weakly.

"Someone call 9-1-1! Call 9-1-1!" Brennen heard her voice screaming, but didn't think she remembered opening her mouth to do so. She just clutched Booth's hand with all her might, willing him not to let go. His eyes closed and she saw a bit of blood in his mouth and he started to tremble, he was going into shock. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized how serious Booth's injury was.

_Stark hit the stomach lining! He's bleeding internally..._

"Booth! Seeley! Seeley please…"

She wasn't even aware of the tears streaming down her cheeks.

**_I am a bit of a cliffee junkie...so tell me...want the last chap?? _**


	13. Not going anywhere

**_Last chap, sorry to keep all of you waiting so long. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I'd name you off but that would be quite a few, so you know who you are and YOU ROCK!!_**

Brennen sat numbly in the hospital waiting room, the events of the past few hours playing in her head like an unwanted home movie she just couldn't turn off. When she closed her eyes she could still hear the sirens from the ambulance and all the commotion outside the station when they loaded Booth in the back. She was completely aware of her eyes that were undoubtedly still red from crying. She could feel her heart still thumping loudly in her chest, pushing aside her lungs and making it hard to breathe.

She hadn't let go of Booth's hand the whole ride there. She was sitting near his head as he drifted in and out of consciousness in the ambulance. Her voice kept whispering 'don't leave me.' but she coudn't feel herself saying it. She was begging him, she never thought she'd beg anyone for anything.

Brennen heard her name being called and brought her head out of her hands. There, down the hall Angela, Cam, Hodgins and Zack were coming toward her.

Angela's pupils dilated when she saw the blood all over Brennen's hands and face. She was terrified her friend was hurt.

"Sweetie? Bren are you okay?" She knelt beside the anthropologist who stared at her with hollow eyes. "Are you hurt?" She examined Brennen's hands and saw that all the blood was superficial. _God, did Booth bleed that much?_ she wondered to herself.

Angela stood and pulled Brennen to stand beside her.

"Jack, Zack, you guys stay here in case the doctors come out, I'm going to take Brennen and help her get cleaned up."

The boys just nodded, not sure whom they were more concerned about. Booth, who they knew had very serious injuries and had been in surgery for at least an hour. Or Dr. Brennen, the woman who was always so unshakablely strong, but was now staring vacantly as Angela lead her down the hall to a bathroom.

Cam, on the other hand, was already harassing the nurses for information on Booth's condition. It was a good thing Brennen was too out-of-it to notice, because this would have really gotten on her nerves. As if Brennen hadn't already tried scaring the stuffing out of the doctors to get them to tell her something about Booth's condition.

---------------------------------------------

Brennen watched the water turn brown as it went down the drain, she felt Angela's eyes on her as she gently wiped the blood from her friends hands and face, concerned that she looked so distant. She'd tried to bait her into conversations twice already, both times she was met with no reply, so she settled to just making sure she wouldn't be horribly traumatized the next time she looked in the mirror from all the blood on her skin.

When she'd gotten the last of the blood off Brennen's face she threw away the paper towel and sat on the sink facing her friend.

"Sweetie? Are you there?"

Angela was surprised to see Brennen nod her head slightly.

"Are you okay?" She tried.

For the first time Brennen lifted her head and looked into Angela's face. "I've been beaten and detained by Salvadorian gangs."

Angela was taken aback by her friend's sudden revelation. "I know Sweetie."

"And I've woken up in the middle of the night knowing I was completely alone in the world."

"I know."

"But I have never been so terrified, as when I thought Booth was going to die." Suddenly Brennen's eyes were tearing up again. Angela squeezed her hands.

"When my parents disappeared…" Brennen dropped her gaze to the floor, "and I lost my brother, it almost killed me. I swore I'd never be in that position again. I'd never let anyone get that close to me again." She started to shake her head. "But if I lost Booth…if I lost Booth…" Her voice dissolved in sobs and her shoulders shook with the depth of emotion overwhelming her.

Angela snatched her friend up with a tight hug, barely able to keep her own tears from falling.

"It's okay sweetie. It's okay, he's going to be fine."

She rubbed Brennen's back, not letting go even though Brennen didn't hug her back. After a few minutes her breathing returned to normal and she pulled away from Angela's embrace.

"Thanks Ange." She sniffed.

"Bren…" Angela held Brennen by the shoulders and looked her in the face, "Are you going to tell him?"

Angela took the horror that passes over Brennen's features as a 'no'.

_Tell him? Tell him ny world would end if he...Tell him just so he can be taken away from me like everyone else?_

"Okay Sweetie, okay. Nevermind." She hugged her one last time, before leading her out of the bathroom to see if anything had changed in Booth's condition.

The others were waiting for the them when they returned.

"The nurse said he's out of surgery. We can go see him when he's awake." Jack said when they were closer.

The Squints busied themselves for the next two hours calling Booth's family and making sure everyone knew he was okay. Angela had an especially hard time when talking to Parker who insisted he needed to talk to Bones.

"Please Angela? Can I please talk to Bones?"

"Well, Sweetie, she's…very tired. But I'll tell her you said 'hi' okay?"

"Yeah…okay I guess."

Angela's heart sank at knowing she'd disappointed poor Parker, she didn't like the thought of his cute little face looking dejected and sad. But she knew he would have felt a lot worse than that talking to Brennen, who couldn't have mustered an encouraging word for Parker if her life depended on it.

Angela was a little relived, however, to see her friend no longer had that vacant look on her face. instead she now looked to be concentrating hard, as if trying to make a decision.

Finally the nurse said they could go visit Booth. When they arrived in his room, he was still groggy from the medications. The squints crowded into the room around their fallen comrade. Zack trying his best to be ignored by Booth for their bonding, and Angela kept touching his arm, trying to keep things normal by making him blush.

After calling him 'Agent Hot Stuff' for the third time she succeeded and told Booth she and the boys would be back tomorrow to see how he was doing. She then took Zack with one hand and Hodgins, who was trying to steal pudding off one of Booth's nearby trays, with the other and led them out the door.

Cam soon followed suit, feeling awkward there between Booth and Brennen, two people she was painfully aware needed to be alone together.

"Bye Seeley." She said, and left quickly.

This left Brennen and Booth alone. She stood awkwardly at the foot of his bed, her arms folded around herself.

"Hey." Booth said to her, smiling as he was much more alert now that his medication had subsided, he couldn't help it. He was glad she was there.

Brennen nodded, then finally gave him a small smile.

"I'm glad you're okay. I was really worried about you." She didn't mean them to, but her words sounded cold and distant.

Booth looked away, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lost my temper." He cringed thinking back to the interrogation room and made a mental note to find out who'd frisked Stark when he came in and rip them a new one when he found out.

Brennen started to take a step toward Booth and then stepped back again. She dropped her gaze to the floor. "Goodbye Booth." She said softly and started to walk toward the door.

"Hey! Where're you going?"

"Oh, I uh…" Brennen stammered, "I have some work back at the lab I should go do so...you know." She shrugged and tried not to look at Booth so he wouldn't see the uncertainly in her face.

He saw it. He knew she was holding something back.

"And? What else?" He said expectantly.

Finally she looked at him. "Booth. I'm, um...going to request a new partner from the FBI."

Booth's face immediately betrayed his hurt feelings.

"What do you mean? Why?" He studied Brennen, who stayed across the room at the door. His heart got weak when he realized she was tearing up.

"It's just," she sighed, "Our jobs are dangerous. We deal with death everyday and both of us have our fair share of enemies. I know that. But, I just…if something happened to you…like today I…I just couldn't…" She broke off. Every time she tried to tell him her mind stopped her and she went at it from a different direction. But she couldn't get the words out.

Booth studied his covers for a moment. "No." He said finally.

"What?" Brennen stepped toward him, not sure she'd heard correctly.

"No. You don't get to walk away." He studied her face, watched the tenderness and defiance struggle with each other in her features. "We've been through too much together. I've told you things...things I've never told anyone. We're more than partners. We're friends and you don't get to just walk out on everything we've been through."

Booth worked hard to keep his voice steady as Bones walked toward him as he spoke. She was taking in what he was saying.

She shook her head, "But Booth…"

"Sorry Bones, you're stuck with me."

Brennen put her hands on her hips, she was at Booth's bedside now. "Are you trying to tell me what to do?" Annoyance tinged her voice.

Booth shrugged, glancing away and then giving her a small version of his charm smile, "No, I'm just telling you how it is." Then, all teasing gone from his voice he reached out and took her hand, "I'm not going anywhere Temperance."

Immediately her face softened and Booth was surprised at the vulnerability in her eyes. She unconsciously interlaced her fingers with his and sat on the side of the bed.

_Can he really say that? Is it really possible that if I let him in, this time will be different?_

"You promise?" She asked softly.

Booth took his hand from hers, as it hurt to move his other arm, and he lifted her chin to meet his gaze.

"I promise."

Temperance looked into his eyes and was overwhelmed with the tenderness and truth that lie within them. Before she had time to think she leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on his lips.

Booth was at first surprised and then reached up with his good hand and placed it on the back of her head, unable to control the intense desire to show her all the passion he'd been holding back for months. After a few indulgent seconds Temperance broke the kiss, pulling away, flushed red in her cheeks.

"Sorry," Booth wiped his mouth, "If, uh, that was too…"

"No, no, don't apologize." Brennen smiled widely. "You have nothing to apologize for."

Their fingers danced with each other on the bed for a while until she started to get up.

"Where are you going now?" Booth almost whined.

"Well," she smiled shyly, "I really do have some work back at the lab…"

Booth grabbed her hand. "Stay for a while? Please?"

Brennen was about to refuse when Booth flashed his full on charm smile. She surrendered and sat back down in a chair next to the bed, knowing she'd been beat.

Booth picked up the black object at his side.

"So you see Bones. This clever little thing here is a 'remote'. It's used to control that black box there on the wall which will display moving pictures of varying degrees of entertainment value."

Brennen smacked him lightly on his good arm. "You know I know what a TV is Booth."

Booth chuckled and began to channel surf until he found a show he thought Brennen would enjoy.

"You ever heard of 'Star Trek' Bones?"

"Heard of it 'yes', watched it, 'no'."

"It should interest you, it's about a crew of people hundreds of years in the future who spend their whole lives searching out new cultures and species and studying them. Kind of like what you do."

Brennen was immediately engrossed in the "unique warrior culture of Klingons who equate violence with honor and death in battle as the ultimate achievement". Booth smiled at her childlike naivety as she systematically disected every scene, and drifted to sleep to the sound of her voice. The most beautiful sound in the world.

Brennen finally noticed he'd drifted off when he started to snore softly and she interlaced her fingers with his once again. She was surprised the sinking terror had not returned to her chest at finally revealing to Booth her true feelings. She realized that she instead felt something much more soothing and welcome.

She felt safe. Safe in the arms of the one she loved, knowing he would always be there to catch her if she began to fall. She knew he would always challenge her and that he would never hurt her.

She reached up and caressed his sleeping face.

"I'll see you tomorrow Seeley." She kissed him one last time and silently left the room.

"I'll be here Temperance."

THE END

**_So...what did you think of the ending?_** **_I have a bunch more fics I'm planning to post if people like what they read._**


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